My wife and I are renovating our home. Every time we start to tell someone about our project they all say, “Tell me your disaster story”; the contractor didn’t show up, they did shoddy work, forgot to place an order with one of their suppliers, didn’t submit the permit in time, etc., etc., etc.

Well, we don’t have one bad story. We have 20 good ones. From the beginning, our contractor, Michael, would tell us, “We have a problem, but don’t worry. I have two solutions and you get to choose which one you want.” He might say, “One option might cost a bit more, and the other one might take more time.”

We love Michael because he doesn’t leave us with a problem; he leaves us with solutions.

In the world of business, many business partners and company associates communicate problems without being trained to think about potential fixes. It’s clearly possible that the resolution might cost too much or has been tried in the past and did not work, but the process of developing creative problem-solving ideas, coupled with communicating the issue, almost completely takes the anxiety out of concerns that arise every day.